Miami called the worst place in America for housing costs. Is more density a fix? | Editorial

Miami, apparently, is the worst place in America when it comes to housing costs.

Or, as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia Fudge, said when she singled out Miami for a visit Tuesday, it’s “the epicenter of the housing crisis in this country.”

We knew that already. Renters are in one of the most competitive markets in the United States, though, thankfully, there are early signs it may be cooling. Home prices have surged to unaffordable levels. Working families are desperate to hang on, but housing costs are pushing them — and our workforce — out of the area. The situation is dire.

But here’s what else Fudge said: Local government needs to play a key role in finding solutions — starting with zoning — rather than depending on federal dollars to help them buy their way out of the problem. (HUD funding provides the bulk of the county’s $700 million budget for public housing, and the county still needs $400 million for repairs and improvements.)

“We can no longer sit back and say, ‘Yes, we want to make things happen,’ and then make things as difficult as possible through zoning and planning,” Fudge said. Later, in an interview with the Miami Herald, she added: “If your zoning says you can only build single-family housing, what have you accomplished?”

In other words, Miami-Dade may need to “densify.”

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — who in April rightly declared a housing affordability crisis — earlier this month released a plan to loosen zoning rules and make it easier to fit more housing into less space. Densification, as it’s sometimes called, was pitched as a way to keep the suburbs from continuing to balloon into the Everglades, while also bumping up housing availability.

“Densification is one way to create opportunity, which will bring down costs,” the mayor said during Fudge’s visit.

The plan, though not universally applauded, calls for options such as allowing property owners to qualify for slightly denser zoning without a hearing, allowing more lots to be split for duplexes and rowhouses and waiving requirements for retail space on the ground floor of mixed use developments, allowing for more housing.

Increasing density within Miami-Dade has built-in problems, though, that would need to be addressed. What about people already living in communities that suddenly must support a lot more housing? How will the roads support more traffic? What about drainage and green space and plain old livability?

As County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa said when the plan was proposed, “The people who have been paying taxes are going to pay a very high price. The density in those residential areas is going to be overwhelming.”

The HUD secretary’s visit drove home the acuteness of Greater Miami’s housing crisis. We agree with her that local government should play a key part in arresting the spiraling costs, though the feds and the state must help, too. But if adding more housing density is offered as a possible fix to this terrible spot we’re in, we’ll need to see the receipts.

More density without much more planning will only degrade the quality of life for all of us.

This story was originally published June 29, 2022 at 6:11 PM.